Dad writes
[re camping] Here a gas bottle of 10kg is about the same price as gasoline, 1,33DEM or 40 dinars per liter.
Too bad that Ricardo and Go can't go with you to camp. It would be nice if you could be there all together. Just like when Arpi and his pal were with us in Borik.
In the neigborhood and among the folks we know, rarely anyone brags of going for a vacation. Only the businessman, Đuđa's son in law, spends a month in Spain with family, so Đuđa is holding the fort as the CEO in charge. From yours, as far as we know, only Brlja is on the coast. Veca and Sneca are packing for Zlatibor, on the latter's husband's account*. Veca's husband is just on the river, fishing, being still unemployed, and the partnership with Zova's brother didn't go as expected. Serious „businessmen“ have no time for vacation, and there's no middle class.
We have a comedy with Montenegro. They offered to make a federal government with 18 ministers, 9:9. And Labus and other say no problem, as long as you pay them. Because Montenegro's contribution to the federal budget is zero. Ended with 5:5, including the PM from Montenegro and his second from Serbia. The seat of their part of the government is in Hyatt hotel**.
Their president is adamantly for holding a referendum there on the subject of staying in federation or leaving. Now some parties in DOS suggest that Serbia should have one, on the same day, with the same question. Now seeing how the Montenegrins have changed bread with their independence, it seems that the independence would get more votes in Serbia than in their ecological republic. The faculties producing the politician cadres would fare the worst - the law and economy - because their montenegrin students would now become foreign and would have to pay tuition like all foreigners do, while now most of them are on our budget. Most of them say they couldn't afford to pay tuition, so many enterprises in Serbia would remain without future „directors“. Bon voyage! Mom wonders how would it be if they voted stay and Serbia leave?
Nina had planned to travel home for a vacation, but it got complicated, as there was no airline connecting any of the european hubs (London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, even Rome) to Belgrade. Best case was to Vienna, with staying there overnight, or Budapest, same. So it came to nothing, in the end.
On 23rd Burt came by. Brought us a bunch of advertising materials for Chincoteague, and a better roadmap. Nice one, state issue, so no ads. No other news. Mrvica now reacts not only to the sound of the corolla, but also the jangling of the keys. She immediately thinks someone's going out to get her some grass. She reacts to closing of the car door, which is a short and weak sound, and around that time other folks come home and close theirs - but no, her radar ears detect exactly the one, and she squeeks.
We're still regular at the pool. As I wrote on sezam [not on, but from, my subscription expired 20 months ago], „indulging in the vice of normal life“. And sleeping - I wrote that around noon, and my eyes were already collapsible. Wait until 16:00 (ah, yes, I took to working 8 to 16, so to have more of an afternoon, and to enjoy the quiet in the office, at least during the first coffee).
The legend of the ponies on Chincoteague is that a spanish ship crashed there and the horses survived. It seems that many coastal villages had a major industry in firing up fake lighthouses to maroon ships and rob them.
The temperature went up to 36. The AC is managing, somehow, not great but makes it bearable. On 27th we had rain, but it didn't bring any refreshment, it just turns into „you're sweating in vain, it doesn't evaporate“, because the humidity went to over 90%.
About Ford's design methods: „he'd create a rush even if he had a deadline a year away. He simply, two days before christmas, comes with a drawing of how the pig should look, and not how to feed it up, but with a list of which other piglets we need to make. Luckily, it's just two more days and then he packs.“
Now he got Lajna's phone, and I checked the rates - calling Croatia would cost between 0,23 and 1,80$ per minute, depending on south wind and sheer luck.
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* he was working at putnik, now probably for some private agency.
** which is about five minutes' walk from the SIV building, which was built to be the seat of federal government.